“Scott Sheffield, the outgoing chief of Pioneer Natural Resources, threw down the gauntlet last week – with some poetic licence – claiming that his pre-tax production costs in the Permian Basin of West Texas have fallen to $2.25 a barrel.
“Definitely we can compete with anything that Saudi Arabia has. We have the best rock,” he said. Revolutionary improvements in drilling technology and data analytics that have changed the cost calculus faster than almost anybody thought possible.”
The Saudi problem is worse than that. American companies, mindful of the nationalizations of the Sixties and Seventies, will no longer export technology to Middle Eastern oil states. Which means the U.S. will maintain an enduring advantage until and unless the Saudis can replicate the American technology…and I wouldn’t put my lunch money on that happening any time soon.
@Francis:
My friend, you hit the target right in the dead center!
Indeed, the day of Saudi Arabian oil domination is ending…The billions of Western dollars will dry up…The Western technicians will leave….air conditioning will shut down for lack of money…the water will cease flowing…and the desert kingdom is gonna have problems keeping the starving and thirsty “little people” down.
Congrats Texas.
Here in Canada we are determined to leave all resources in the ground, probably lobby for American foreign aid to offset the poverty, and perhaps when civilization eventually passes this way again we may begin to use our resources as well.
I’m shocked!
You mean to say that worthless POS Trudeau has already shut down Canada’s booming oil industry?
Oil, coal, pipelines, with huge “carbon pricing” (tax on everything using the essential trace gas carbon dioxide). Oxygen tax next.
We have the tag team of Trudeau, Wynne and Notley, enough concentration of lefties to deliver the final coup de grace to Canada’s working people.
Energy poverty, where you either choose between eating or heating your home, is becoming a common phrase now in this country.